Royal Family
by LainellaFay
Summary: The Royal Family isn't connected by blood. Children from different towns are chosen to become part of the Royal Family. Niou Masaharu happened to be one of them. CASTLE AU.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I do not own PoT.**

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**Rikkaidai Palace**

**Central of Rikkaidai City**

_Niou Masaharu. Age 8._

Niou stared at the majestic throne at the front of the wide room. Niou reckons that it should be the great hall, where the King would attend to guests. He had guards flanking him on all sides. Niou wished that he could get rid of them, but they had spears. With sharp pointy ends. Niou didn't want to die at such a young age.

Niou felt the guard behind him shove him by his back. Niou stumbled a few steps forwards and was about to rotate his head around to growl at that rude guard when he heard a command from his left.

"Kneel down right now. The King is arriving."

Niou grudgingly went down onto his knees, placing his palms face down onto the red carpet. It wasn't too bad. The carpet was soft and fluffy.

As Niou faced the carpet, he heard loud blaring of horns, and clanking of metal.

"LONG LIVE THE KING!"

Niou was about to lift his head up when a large hand – Niou could feel the hardened calluses – was placed onto his head, keeping it down.

_Stomp. Stomp. Stomp._

Niou heard stomping of boots. Was it a march of some kind?

"At ease." A deep voice boomed from the front.

From the corner of his eye, Niou saw that the guards surrounding him were all on their knees, right hand on their chest and spears in their left.

"Speak."

"King Retsuji, we're here to present to you the new addition to the Royal Family."

"Oh...?" King Retsuji lifted up his right hand, pointing at Niou. "Lift up his head."

Niou felt the hand on his head roughly tug onto his hair – Niou grimaced in pain -, pulling his head back.

Niou noticed that the King was wearing a long cape, a crown full of jewels rested on his head. The King was fairly old, from his looks, long grey hair cascaded down to his waist, and a rather long beard to boot.

Niou could feel the King's eyes roam over his face, taking in his facial features. The King leaned back in his throne, hands on either side of the armrest.

"Where'd you get him from?"

"From the town a few miles away, Your Majesty. The town called Traiken. He's the son of the mayor there."

The King seemed impressed, nodding his head a few times. He started to stroke his beard, this time, posing a question for Niou.

"Your name, son?"

Niou didn't reply at first, squeezing his lips tightly together.

"How dare you show such rudeness in front of His Majesty!" The guard on his right growled at him.

Niou waited for some kind of punishment to arrive.

"Now, now. It's alright. Your name, son?" King Retsuji asked again, observing the defiant look in Niou's eyes.

"Speak, or you won't get off so easily next time!" There was a hiss from the back.

Niou suppressed the urge to roll his eyes and muttered, "Niou Masaharu."

The King tilted his head slightly to the side. "I didn't get that son, say it again, louder this time."

"Niou Masaharu."

"Ho...Masaharu..." The King stroked his beard again. "That's a nice name."

Niou averted his gaze, glaring at the carpet instead. The King stood up, his cape swaying slightly. He raised both hands in the air, and declared, "Welcome to the Royal Family, Niou Masaharu."

Niou hated those words more than anything else in the world.

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**A/N: This is a prologue for a story that I'm considering. It'll contain OCs. The only pairing would probably only be Niou/Marui - cause I just love that pairing. I might include others, but haven't decided on that yet.  
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**Comments anyone?  
**


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own PoT.**

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__**Rikkaidai Palace**

**Central of Rikkaidai City**

_Niou Masaharu. Age 10._

Two years after entering the palace, Niou had pretty much gotten used to the new lifestyle.

He was used to it, but it didn't mean that he liked it.

Niou was the 11th child to be brought in, at least, that's what Niou reckons, seeing that he had only been introduced to ten other Princes or Princesses – six of them were females while the other four were males –, however, he wasn't the youngest. There were others who joined when they were way younger than when Niou was.

Some were overjoyed that they actually had the privilege of being part of the Royal family, as it brought them fame and wealth. Some cried for their parents at the beginning, begging to go back home, and were simply hushed to sleep or locked in their chambers if they continued to wail. Eventually, most of them turned into 'haughty beasts' – as Niou would call them – who only cared about their own reputation amongst the townspeople, and acted as if they were born as royalties. Well, most of them never knew their own parents.

Niou rarely ever saw the King, maybe a few incidental sightings whenever King Retsuji walked through the hallways, banquets with important guests or when he was by any chance summoned. Niou never even seen Queen Amerial once. He had seen how she supposedly looked like from the gigantic portraits around the castle but he had never seen her face to face, not even from a distance. Niou wonders if there was even a Queen in the first place.

So, the only kind of parental love the children received were from the castle servants.

_Parents._ Niou scoffed. Over the course of two years, Niou only received two letters from his parents. Both on his birthday.

_'Like hell they'd actually remembered my birthday.'_ Niou bets that they'd probably have it recorded somewhere just to boast that one of their _sons_ was now a Prince. Or, it could also be because of the country wide celebration that would be held every time it was a Prince's or Princess's birthday. Niou didn't get the point of those. He didn't see why the townspeople would be so excited over such an event.

_'Why bother celebrating someone's, who you don't even know, birthday?'_

Not only were they celebrated, the celebrations lasted three days. Three days. Starting on the day before the actual day itself, and ending the day after the actual day.

He wasn't really well liked by his family from the start, maybe it was partially his own fault, for always being so disobedient. Maybe that was the reason why they didn't object a single bit when the castle guards arrived to snatch him away. They probably had a celebration back in that estate after Niou disappeared through the front doors with the guards on each side.

_'It's like killing two birds with one stone.'_

Their family name would get fame for having one of their members in the Royal family, and they would also have gotten rid of Niou himself. Not only that, the King gave each of the Princes and Princesses' families 'compensation' money for 'taking' their child. Not that Niou's family needed that money – they were not poor, his father was the mayor of his hometown for crying out loud.

Niou never opened those letters, tossing them into the wastebasket immediately when they arrived. He didn't want to read his parent's fake words about how they probably 'missed' him and 'loved' him, like how the other children's parent's wrote in their letters.

"Niou?" A blue haired youth waltzed into Niou's bedchamber, without even knocking on the door. Niou laid on his bed, looking up at the ceiling, not even bothering to sit up and greet the visitor. There was only one person who would do that, and Niou knew who.

Yukimura Seiichi.

"What?"

Niou heard shuffling of feet. Yukimura dragged the chair from his desk over to the bedside, making scratching noises as the legs of the chair scraped against the cemented floor. Unlike most places in the castle, Niou's room lacked the soft carpet, just like he requested. He never explained why he didn't want to have the carpet, but the King obeyed his request anyways.

Niou turned his head sideward, facing Yukimura as the boy moved his cape out of the way and sat on the chair, brushing stray hair out of his face.

Yukimura was one of the Princes, the only one out of all the Royal children whom Niou was close to. He was taken in at the young age of 5. When Niou first saw him, he almost thought that Yukimura was a true blood royalty. The blue haired male had this aura around him, that made him seem like royalty. Maybe it was the way his cape was draped over his shoulders, flying in the wind, when the others weren't, sticking to the soft fabric of their clothes. Of course, he was not. Niou knew that. No one in the Royal Family was connected by blood, they had no blood ties at all. There was no exceptions.

"King Retsuji isn't happy with your behaviour at the banquet yesterday."

Niou rolled his eyes.

As part of the Royal Family, they were meant to call King Retsuji 'father', but Yukimura and Niou both didn't refer to him as that when he wasn't in their presence. As 'brothers', they were also meant to call each other by their given names, as it was weird to still go by their old last names, but the two boys refused to, not wanting to give up their original names – not that Niou really cared, he just preferred it over than just being a Prince.

"And he called you here to come and lecture me?"

Yukimura smiled. "Of course not. I came here to say well done. I wish someone drew a portrait of the old man's face yesterday."

Niou grinned, pushing himself up into a sitting position. He moved his legs so that he was sitting cross-legged and placed down his hands on either side.

"King Retsuji's face was priceless wasn't it?"

"Yeah, if only the others could have seen it as well."

There was a knock on the door. Niou kept his grin on his face, just like Yukimura did with his smile.

"You may enter." Niou called out in a monotonous tone, like he always did whenever he had to interact with the servants.

The door swung open and revealed a more or less plump woman, looking to be around her 40s. She wheeled in a cartload of what Niou suspects to be breakfast, they were covered with opaque silver dish covers and the only thing visible was a bunch of grapes in a bowl at the corner.

"Prince Seiichi, Prince Masaharu." She greeted, doing a low curtsey. Straightening up, she continued, "Prince Seiichi, His Majesty is looking for you, he wants you to meet him in his quarters."

Yukimura would have sighed, but he didn't, swiftly leaving without a sound, his dark blue cape whipping the air behind him. Niou knew why Yukimura was being summoned. King Retsuji wanted to get Yukimura a fiancé. Yukimura was one of the more popular Princes, with his looks, charm, and well, almost everything. Even though he was only at the age of 10, many older woman swooned over him, wishing that they would ever have a chance to be with him. Mothers also tried various methods to even get him to look at their daughter's direction.

Amazingly, Yukimura somehow managed to get out of a lot of marriages. Niou didn't know what he did, but the other party would cancel the engagement, not with signs of frustration on their faces, but instead, with gracious smiles. King Retsuji had been trying for months, to find the most suitable girl for Yukimura, the richest, the prettiest, the kindest. Niou had seen portraits of those girls, and even though they weren't of his type, he had to say that they were pretty.

"Prince Masaharu, it's already time for breakfast and you're still in your sleepwear! Get dressed right this instant!"

Niou only fake-yawned, running his fingers through his hair, untangling knots that managed to form. The plump female – Anette – was his personal caretaker, and she was always nagging him, every second, every minute of the day, seven days a week. Being one of the higher ranking maids, she was the only one who dared to use that kind of tone on a prince.

"This is not the type of behaviour His Majesty would expect from one of his children!" She wagged a finger and left the cart in the middle of the large chamber, darting over to his wardrobe and grabbing an outfit for Niou to wear.

_'I'm not even his child.'_ Niou rolled his eyes again – twice in less than 5 minutes. That was a new record.

He slowly placed his feet down onto the floor, hissing when he felt the cold surface against his bare feet. Anette appeared right before him and shoved the outfit into his face – okay, not really – letting it drop onto his lap. She then pulled him off the bed – Niou managing to keep the clothes hanging off one arm – and shoved him behind the curtains (where they change, not the ones at the window).

Behind the curtains, Niou peeled his sleepwear off his body and stared at the outfit hanging on the wall. It screamed, "I AM A PRINCE!", and Niou hated that. He hated how everything was so fancily annoying. He couldn't climb trees due to _rules_ – his cape would also hinder him. He couldn't do this, he couldn't do that. All because he was now a Prince, and princes cannot do such unsightly stuff.

"When you're done with that, have your breakfast and head to the library. Your literature tutor is already waiting for you. The lesson was meant to start 40 minutes ago."

Niou softly groaned, hanging his head down. He also hated the lessons that he was forced to take. Apparently the Royal Family had to be highly educated. How else were they meant to rule a nation? Niou wasn't stupid, but he didn't want to learn anything that he wasn't interested in. He never completed his homework, ending up getting lectured by the various subject tutors. Sometimes, if Yukimura was in a good mood, Niou would ask the blue haired boy to finish them for him, not without a price to pay of course.

Adjusting his cape on his shoulders, Niou pushed the curtains to the side and walked over to the cart, lifting up the covers to take a peek at the food. Deciding that he didn't want to touch any of those, he grabbed the bunch of grapes from the bowl and left the room, ignoring Anette's lecture about him not getting enough nutrients.

.~.

It took Niou about another 40 minutes to get to the library. Firstly, because the castle was humongous. Secondly, because Niou took the longer route. And thirdly, Niou walked slower than a snail.

The library was divided into sections, one section for each of the children. As Niou passed by the other sections to get to his own, he noticed judging stares being shot at his direction.

It was normal. Niou just ignored them, unless he was feeling childish and would stick out his tongue while walking past.

Sure, sure, Niou wasn't an 'angel' like the rest of the children who always made sure to absorb as much _knowledge_ as possible so that they may be future leaders.

_'Idiots.'_ Niou nearly snorted. _'The old man probably wouldn't even give up the throne to any of you.'_

Niou stopped walking, one foot still in the air. _'Maybe only to Yukimura.'_ He then continued his walk to hell.

.~.

Eyes threatened to close as Niou sat on the wide chair, behind the wooden desk, elbow on table, head resting on palm. The tutor was holding a pointer and pointing to random lines on the story that they were analysing – the tutor was analysing, Niou was not.

Niou held the pen in his left hand and twirled it. Why did he even have to do this again? Oh yeah, because of the stupid rules. To make matters worse, his literature lesson would be followed by biology, chemistry, math, and economics, before Niou could finally have some time to himself. Niou wanted to just slam his head down onto the table then and there.

.~.

Niou stretched his arms in the air as he ran out of the library, ignoring yells about how he was not meant to run in the hallways. Niou enjoyed the breeze that blew into his face as he ran, his black cape flowing like a superhero's when they zoomed in the sky.

He ran out into the garden, slowing down to a stop when he spotted Yukimura's blue hair. Yukimura was sitting on a bench, peacefully reading a thick book that Niou would never touch.

Niou slowly crept up to the other boy and was about to scare him when Yukimura twisted his neck and flashed a smile at the silver head, making Niou jump instead.

"What were you planning on doing, Niou?"

Niou sighed, running his fingers through his hair, stopping when he reached his red hair tie, that he used to tie his hair into a rattail. He should have figured, for 2 years, he had tried for more than a hundred times to catch Yukimura off-guard, and had failed for all of those attempts.

Yukimura was harder to scare than the stone faced Sanada.

Niou moved over to the empty side of the bench and plopped down, slouching in his seat. Yukimura slammed his book shut and placed it on the other side, giving Niou his full attention.

"How were the lessons?"

Niou lifted up his head and simply stared at Yukimura.

"That bad?"

Niou grunted, turning away, instead, looking at the ant trail a metre away.

"I wish I could skip out on those darn lessons too." Niou muttered.

"Hm?" Yukimura smiled, tilting his head to the side. Niou turned to look at Yukimura again.

"How do you manage to skip them?"

"I didn't skip them Niou. I was-" Yukimura's smile widened.

Niou widened his eyes in realisation. Oh yeah...Yukimura was...

_'Shoot. Bad move, bad move.'_

"I know I know. I'm sorry Yukimura!" Niou interrupted Yukimura and waved his hands in front of him. Yukimura's smile slowly vanished as he nodded.

Niou had forgotten that Yukimura had probably spent the whole morning with King Retsuji, discussing about – Niou shuddered – _marriage._ If Niou had a choice, he would pick being bored in lessons any day. That would be so much better than being shown portrait after portrait of potential wives.

Yukimura suddenly stood up, picking up his book and holding it against the side of his body. He turned and faced Niou, who was still perched on the bench.

"Ready? I think the others are already waiting for us. You took longer than expected."

Niou glanced up at the blue haired boy, frowning. "Really? I just sat down."

Even though he was complaining, Niou still got up from the bench, brushing dust off his clothes.

"It's your fault for taking your own sweet time to get to your lesson." Yukimura chuckled as they walked off.

"How-" Niou paused. "How did you know?" He eyed Yukimura skeptically. Yukimura only smiled, making Niou wonder if he had some powers which allowed him to know everything in the world.

.~.

The two stepped onto the courts, which were secretly set up in a less frequented part of the castle grounds, a place where no one in the royal family would be caught dead at. Neither of them had asked for permission to do such a thing, thus, the only few people who knew about those courts were those who they played with, the guards patroling around the castle grounds, and the soldiers that Yukimura charmed into helping them set them up.

Yukimura and Niou figured that King Retsuji would say that playing tennis was useless, and that they should spend their time more wisely, such as revising for classes.

"Niou-kun, why are you and Yukimura-kun late for practice today?" A purple haired boy with opaque glasses asked, walking up to stand beside Niou.

"Beca-" Niou started.

"Because Niou had to stay behind for not arriving to his lessons on time." Yukimura interrupted.

Niou flashed a glare at the blue haired boy and added, "And because Yukimura had to go back to the library to return his book."

"Niou-kun," the boy with the glasses folded his arms across his chest and said, "you really should start paying attention to your lessons."

"Yagyuu...give me a break..." Niou groaned, placing his arm on the purple haired boy's shoulder.

Yagyuu only lifted up his right hand to push his glasses up.

Yagyuu Hiroshi. He was the son of the Judge of the King's court, and was going to be following in his father's footsteps in the future. Whenever his father came around to the castle, Yagyuu would follow and end up hanging around with Niou and the rest. On days where they would have their secret practices, Yagyuu would make up excuses to come over – the only misbehaviour that he would do, being brought up as a gentleman and to be truthful.

After a few seconds, Yagyuu shrugged Niou's arm off his shoulder and walked off to grab his racket. By then, Yukimura had already ventured off to have a chat with Sanada and Yanagi.

Sanada Geinchirou was famous for his skills at wielding a katana at such a young age, acquiring the title as the Samurai of Rikkaidai, the youngest ever to earn the title. He could slice a wild bull in half faster than an arrow would take to reach the target one metre away. King Retsuji was so impressed with the young boy's talent that he had given Sanada a chamber of his own in the castle, not much smaller than the royal children's.

Yanagi on the other hand, was the son of the King's most trusted advisor. Similar to Yagyuu, he was also training to take over his father's position. With his intelligence and photographic memory, Niou was certain that he would make a better advisor than his father. Although, sometimes, Yanagi would frighten the other children with his seemingly unlimited data on their personal lives.

"Niou!" A cry came from the other end. A red haired boy smiled a toothy smile as he waved his hand high in the air, beckoning for Niou to go over. Beside him was a foreigner with slightly darker skin, and not a strand of hair on his head. The bald boy was leaning against the net as he clamped a palm over the red head's mouth, using the universal hand signal, telling him to keep quiet.

The red haired boy – Marui – widened his eyes for a few seconds before nodding, using both hands to move the bald headed boy's – Jackal – palm from his mouth. Niou jogged over and greeted the two with a "Yo!"

Hitting Marui lightly on the head with a fist, Niou laughed and said, "Don't be so loud idiot."

Marui huffed and replied, "I got it already. Jackal told me, geez."

Marui Bunta was the son of Marquess Marui – who was responsible for the defence of the border between the country of Hyoutei and Rikkaidai. He had been wandering around the castle gardens while his father was in a meeting and chanced upon Niou hiding in the bushes. With some help from Marui – loaning them commoners' outfits –, Yukimura and Niou had managed to sneak out of the castle about a year ago and discovered the wonderful sport, tennis, which they all grown to love, while they were spectating a match between two townsmen. (They got caught in the end and had gotten in huge trouble with King Retsuji.)

It was after that day that Yukimura and Niou created the plan for the secret tennis courts, inviting the others to play with them when they made sure that the courts were safe from any unwanted company.

"Want to play doubles?" Jackal asked, noticing Yagyuu approaching the three of them.

Jackal Kuwahara was the son of the fearless Knight, Sir Kuwahara. Sir Kuwahara was not originally from Rikkaidai, born and raised in the small nation Firenian. However, years ago, before Niou even existed, Rikkaidai had conquered several nations along it's borders – Firenian being one of them – expanding its nation. The previously tiny country, Rikkaidai, from then on, became known as the Invincible Rikkaidai, its name alone sending shivers down people's spines. At the beginning, the townsmen of Rikkaidai refused to acknowledge the skills of anyone from foreign land, Sir Kuwahara's talent was thus hidden in the dark before King Retsuji finally passed out the law that allowed the conquered nations rights to be treated exactly as the Rikkaidai townspeople.

All these children with entirely different backgrounds were connected by just one sport. Tennis. When they were together, they ignored the rules, ignored the honorifics, ignored the titles. They didn't care about where they came from, who their parents were, what position they currently hold. The only thought on their mind was to have fun and play tennis as they pleased.

"Yeah sure, let me just grab my racket." Niou answered, spinning on his heels, making his way to the storeroom, where they kept all of their equipments.

"Yukimura. Niou."

Niou stopped after hearing his name, twisting his body around slowly to look at Sanada.

"Are you going to play tennis while wearing _those_ clothes?" The cap wearing boy asked.

Niou looked down and noted that he was wearing his outfit from earlier. The outfit that screamed what Niou didn't want it to scream.

Yukimura directed a smile at Sanada – who lowered his cap, covering his eyes – and grabbed Niou by the wrist, pulling the silver head boy out of the courts and left with a, "We'll be right back."

.~.

Niou and Yukimura returned to the courts cladded in their proper attire, as proper as they could get from their wardrobe full of frilly and gaudy clothes, after sneaking through the castle grounds, avoiding guards, gardeners, and maids who were flitting around. At one part of the castle, they both noticed that the number of guards had increased and wondered if an important guest or at least, someone of importance had came to visit. However, both were too eager to return to the courts and dismissed the thought.

"Let's get started then." Niou announced, getting into position at the base line. He and Yagyuu were playing together against Marui and Jackal.

Bouncing the ball a few times, Niou served the ball and they started a rally. Yanagi was standing at the side of the net, watching the ball closely through closed lids. He was the umpire, however, they could not find a chair high enough that they could take without anyone noticing, therefore, having to bear with just standing where Yanagi was standing. It was all fine as they were only playing for fun. As they have only played for less than a year, they didn't have very outstanding techniques yet, so the ball was easy to catch. The only exceptions were Yukimura, Sanada and Yanagi. The three of them were naturals when it came to tennis, picking the sport up much quicker than the other four. They ended up also teaching Niou, Yagyuu, Marui and Jackal, even though all seven of them started the sport at the same time.

They had only gotten to 15-15 in the first game when they heard the gates slam open and a new voice sneered, "Hehh...so what have I discovered?"

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**A/N: I just realised. That this story requires me to do some research because there are stuff about castles and all that I do not know. I'll be adding some modern elements into the story as well, so it's not all medieval times and all. **

**Introductory chapters are not fun. I know. But I have to do it to set up the setting and characters xD **


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